Al Shifa doctor says staff hiding from gunfire during Israeli raid in Gaza

Dubai: A doctor in Gaza's Al Shifa hospital told Reuters on Wednesday that gunfire forced staff to stay away from windows for their safety as Israeli forces began raiding the complex.

Israel said the military had launched the raid because Hamas has a command centre underneath the hospital and uses connected tunnels to hold hostages, an allegation that doctor Ahmed El Mokhallalati denied.

"Bombardment. Shooting around the hospital and within the hospital. It's really horrible you can feel that it's very near to the hospital. And then we realised that the tanks are moving around the hospital," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"They just parked in front of the hospital emergency department. All kinds of weapons were used around the hospital. They targeted the hospital directly. We try to avoid being near the windows."

Global calls for a humanitarian ceasefire have mounted in recent days, and the fate of Al Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital has become a focus of international alarm because of worsening conditions in the facility.

Thousands of patients, medical staff and displaced people have been trapped during the Israeli assault on Gaza in the past five weeks. Israel says it has urged civilians to surrender, saying they are being used by Hamas as human shields.

"We know this is a lie," said Mokhallalati.

As Mokhallalati described the dangers ahead and deteriorating conditions in the hospital, shots which did not sound like an exchange of gunfire rang out twice.

"One of the patient's rooms was targeted. There was a whole in the wall. No one was injured but everyone got terrified," he said.